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Born to the Cahokia Tribe in present-day Mississippi, Kol'Tek was blessed with the power of the hyoka - the ability to take the evil and anger of others into himself and render it impotent. He died and became Immortal in 1190 while performing a ritual which went wrong. He soon meets an Immortal who tells him what he is and how to survive. The holy man performed this function for the protection of his tribe for centuries - until the arrival of the white man. Kol'Tek was forced to watch as his people slowly diminished and expired from famine, disease and persecution. Undaunted, the former shaman began wandering the whole of North America, exercising his power and taking evil into himself wherever and in whomever he found it. He also applied his mystic ability to The Game, seeking out evil Immortals and absorbing the darkness within them, or if that failed, taking their heads and the evil that came with it.

Coltec, in a U.S. Army jail in 1872

It was in this fashion that Kol'Tek first encountered Duncan. Arrested for causing the death of a U.S. cavalryman in 1872, Kol'Tek found himself imprisoned in a military outpost near the Sioux Territory, awaiting execution. Duncan, fresh from the loss of his Sioux wife Little Deer and on a blood hunt for his hated enemy Kern, stormed the outpost in his search and was quickly overpowered. As the furious Highlander raged from within the prison cell, Kol'Tek gently approached him, explaining who he was and offering to ease Duncan's hate and pain. "A soul can only hold so much hate, so much anger," the hayoka warned. "One more drop and hate will own you." Duncan resisted at first, but Kol'Tek's patient reassurances persuaded the Highlander to accept. The two would become fast friends from that day forth.

Coltec helps Duncan MacLeod by absorbing Duncan's anger into him

Kol'Tek, having survived his imprisonment, continued his self-appointed practice, expanding out into the rest of the world. However, he began to experience difficulty in his abilities: the evil became harder and harder to suppress. Coltec began to suspect that he was reaching a point of no return - he was amassing a level of darkness beyond his ability to contain.

In 1958, Duncan encountered Kol'Tek agan in Greenwich Village. Kol'Tek, now Jim Coltec, intercepted the Highlander's hunt for Immortal Bryce Korland, taking the latter's head to the annoyance of MacLeod.

In 1995, Coltec arrives in Seacouver

The inevitable finally occurred in 1996. Coltec, on his way to meet his friend Duncan in Seacouver, ran afoul of the evil Immortal Harry Kant as the latter was robbing a local grocer. A creature of habit, Coltec challenged Kant and defeated him. This proved to be undoing as killing Kant triggered a Dark Quickening, that quickly consumed the holy man. Taking the dead Immortal's leather jacket and handgun, Coltec calmly walked up to the grocer he had just rescued, and shot him in cold blood. He then hurried to his rendezvous with Duncan and Richie, but when the two walked up to greet him, he attacked without warning or challenge, assaulting MacLeod with a furious rain of blows. Immediately suspecting what had happened, Duncan began searching for his old friend, eventually cornering him in an alley. The Highlander attempted to reverse the effect of the Dark Quickening using the hyoka teachings he learned from his friend, however, his skills were no match for the fallen shaman. Left with the terrible dilemma of what do with his friend, Duncan realized there was no choice. Issuing his challenge, the Highlander fought Coltec and took his head. In so doing, Duncan absorbed the Dark Quickening.

Coltec was revered by his friends and those who knew him. Joe Dawson would note that Coltec was "as close as an Immortal gets to being a saint," Coltec was almost always quiet and reserved, hardly ever showing anger, even when insulted and threatened. Once the Dark Quickening took hold, his persona reversed itself. The dark Coltec was hateful, cynical, filled with contempt - and he reveled in it. Additionally, his mannerisms began to mirror those of the immortals he had killed, most notably Bryce Korland and Harry Kant.

He was a good fighter with a sword. His choice of weapon was a Confederate Cavalry Sabre. It was told that in 1864, he returned with a hunting party with his people only to find the village destroyed. They were not advanced with metal at that time, only using spears as weapons. He acquired the sword from a deceased Southern cavalry officer he found among the dead and carried the sword until his death.

First Aboriginal Immortal in the franchise. Within the Highlander series on DVD season 3, it is established that Watcher Sarah Panzer was investigating the Coltec chronicle and found a discrepancy in his cultural affiliation. She had reason to believe that he was from a water-based culture, to be more specific, of Mississippian descent. She was later given permission to investigate further and corrected his profile.